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How can I tell if my guitar has Nitrocellulose or Poly finish?


jcontraros

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Ok so I have a guitar stand, and it says not to use with nitrocellulose due to a possible chemical reaction that can ruin the finish. I've had a problem with this on an older guitar so i'm certain it had nitrocellulose finish. However I recently bought an Epiphone AJ200s and although it is not an expensive guitar, I am really paranoid about putting it on the stand until I know what type of finish it has. Ive searched everywhere on google and could not find an answer. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

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how can you tell?

 

I have a couple very small dings on it. Ive hit it pretty hard in a few places and it hasnt really dinged up at all. the few dings that are on there are hard to see, unless you angle them in the light or something if you know what im saying.

 

Also...I drilled a hole where the strap-peg is on the side to install a LR Baggs M1...and the finish did not crack at all really. Not that I can see at least. If that helps at all.

 

I thought because it is a low-end guitar (list 300 hundred I think, I payed like 200) it might have nitro?

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Take a key...

 

 

I'd rather just place it on the stand haha. Hmm which I guess I will probably end up doing since I can't seem to verify. I will place it on there and check it frequently. If anyone is interested in the results let me know. Thanks for all the info and humor people.

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I'm curious about how to tell, too. I know my Larrivee has a nitrocellular finish so I've been careful about only buying stands compatible with that finish just to be safe.

 

I recently bought two OnStage stands at a great price only to have Musician's Gear stands shipped. They agreed to a full refund and told me to donate the wrong stands to a school. Of course, the school may have the same issues.

 

What exactly happens to the finish if a guitar is placed on an incompatible stand? Is there a way to replace the incompatible foam rubber with something more suitable?

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I'm curious about how to tell, too. I know my Larrivee has a nitrocellular finish so I've been careful about only buying stands compatible with that finish just to be safe.


What exactly happens to the finish if a guitar is placed on an incompatible stand? Is there a way to replace the incompatible foam rubber with something more suitable?

 

I don't know of any Larrivees with nitro finishes. Today I believe they use polyester exclusively, but perhaps in the past they experimented with nitro finishes.

(Eastman uses a nitro finish.)

what happens if you put it on an incompatible stand is, it sort of melts the finish and you are left with dull spots on your guitar where there is essentially no finish.

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I don't know of any Larrivees with nitro finishes. Today I believe they use polyester exclusively, but perhaps in the past they experimented with nitro finishes.

 

Obviously, I've been misinformed. :confused: Thanks for setting that straight. I guess any stand is suitable in that case.

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I can kind of feel a difference. Poly always seems thick and plastic.

 

These days I've come to the conclusion that it's poly unless I'm told otherwise.

 

Nitro has become so rare among typical name brand guitars that it's usually trumpeted from the hills whenever it's used as a selling point.

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What exactly happens to the finish if a guitar is placed on an incompatible stand? Is there a way to replace the incompatible foam rubber with something more suitable?

 

 

Yes. You just have to find or make something that will fit. I had two stands. An on stage and a fretrest. I forget which was which, but one had the surgical tubing and the other had the safe foam. The one with the safe foam got stomped. (Grrrr...) I cut the surgical tubing off the other one and replaced it with the foam from the stomped one. Not an exact fit, but close enough.

 

Making cloth sleeves should work just as fine too. I was planning on doing that for the surgical rubber one but never got around to it.

 

-A

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When you light it on fire, the Poly will smell kind of like an electrical short.

I removed the rubber, used some heavy felt from a craft store (Wally World prolly has some) and sewed tubes to slide over the support forks. If you do it right, it's on there tight. If you have the ptience you can turn the tube inside out so the seam doesn't show, but whew. Only drawback is that if the support fork isn't rigid it can be a little slidey. I just out a big rubber band on it to create friction where it slips into the frame.

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....nitrocellulose (or any lacquer for that matter) will always dissolve in lacquer thinner - no matter how old or hard it is...polyurethane will not....lacquer dries by solvent evaporation, while polyurethane hardens by chemical reaction....although there are thinners in urethanes that must evaporate, hardening happens independently of solvent evaporation....some air harden, some rely on a catalyst....some are sensitive to light and can be hardened by subjecting them to ultra violet light.....

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I can kind of feel a difference. Poly always seems thick and plastic.


These days I've come to the conclusion that it's poly unless I'm told otherwise.


Nitro has become so rare among typical name brand guitars that it's usually trumpeted from the hills whenever it's used as a selling point.

 

 

I thought the same thing...but one of my guitars is an Alvarez RD8-TBK and...the finish has weird rough spots on it after placing it on the stand for a prolonged time. Almost like it was burned a bit. It is a low end guitar sooo I am surprised that it may have nitrocellulose. I could be wrong though. Perhaps it is another sort of chemical reaction occuring there. I remember reading somewhere that Nitrocellulose is often the cheaper route for guitar finish but I could be mistaking. Assuming it is cheaper maybe that is why its on the Alvarez..but then again I could be way off.

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ya, i currently have peices of terry cloth on it, but they are annoying as they fall off alot, and it just looks ugly haha. If anyone else has more information I'd appreciate it thank you.

 

You need a Guitar Stand Bra (scroll down a ways). As for your Epiphone, it has a poly finish. Inexpensive guitars rarely have a nitro finish and some quite pricey guitars don't either.

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You need a
(scroll down a ways). As for your Epiphone, it has a poly finish. Inexpensive guitars rarely have a nitro finish and some quite pricey guitars don't either.

 

 

Ah, yes I have heard of those. Thanks for the suggestion. Considering the guitar is not nitro I figure I will just put it directly on the stand. If anything happens I'll buy a bra...I'd rather not spend the money (I didn't check the price, but even a few dollars I'd rather not spend if not needed) if not neccasary. We shall see what happens.

 

The more I think about it too the less scared I am to place it on the stand. I wrapped the terry cloth when i bought the guitar brand new...it still had that novelty, and I wanted to keep it mint. I think I'll run the risk and throw it on the stand. I'm pretty sure it will be okay. If not..lesson learned...at least I don't believe it will negatively effect the tone anyways.

 

Thanks.

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